Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler

Creativity: An Eternal Mystery
Sponsored by Stuart \& Ginger Polisner
In Person: Filmmaker: Peter Rosen
From Peter Rosen, the award-winning director of Khachaturian and Who Gets to Call It Art, an eye-opening new documentary about one of the greatest musicians ever to play a violin
Not since Paganini had there been such a magician on the violin. In this revealing documentary about the legendary musician we see vintage filmed performance clips of Jascha Heifetz and learn that he was the first truly modern violin virtuoso, the man about whom Itzhak Perlman said, "When I spoke with him, I thought, I can't believe I m talking with God ." This insightful film portrays an artist for whom only perfection would do, a musical wunderkind who went on to set the standards for nearly a century. We get to know Jascha Heifetz through home movies and personal family photos taken from 1903-1987, a prestigious concert artist so well known in popular culture, his name became shorthand for greatness, for everyone from Jack Benny to The Muppets to Woody Allen. This unique program includes interviews with the great violinists of his generation, and from many of his former students, telling how Heifetz was a legendary but mysterious figure whose story embodies the dual nature of artistic genius: the paradox of how a mortal man lives with immortal gifts - gifts he must honor, but which extract a life long price.Are the man and the artist the same person? What is the price each pays? And who was the man behind the music? This illuminating movie helps answer these questions about one of the greatest musicians of our time. (USA, 2011, 87 min., color, Blu-Ray)